Stateline Northern Territory

SARAH JAENSCH  Reporting:These African refugees now live in Darwin's northern suburbs - a world away from the war zones where they grew up. But they still fear for their safety, and say they're being targeted by gangs of violent, mostly Indigenous teenagers.

MUSA JABATHA:They start hitting us the other one hit me here and look the cut on my hand and we couldn't do anything because there was eight of them. They were telling us this is not our country and go back to our country and we hate you guys because you are black

SARAH JAENSCH:Musa Jabatha says three weeks ago he and his friend, Karsan Bachu, were attacked at the Casuarina bus exchange after leaving school. And they say it wasn't the first time.

KARSAN BACHU:I came from Congo there's a lot of wars happening people being killed. In three days you'd find, like, a thousand people being killed just because of war - we went from war and we come here and we don't want any more wars.

SARAH JAENSCH:Many of their friends say they've experienced some form of racist abuse since moving to Darwin.

SARAH JAENSCH:Every year more than 200 refugees settle in the Northern Territory - nearly all of them are from Africa. The Federal Government funds English lessons but it's the Melaleuca Refugee Centre that provides most of the support through its local volunteers. Lava Kohaupt is the coordinator of the Malaleuca Centre. She says racial attacks on the African community have been going on for about nine months.

LAVA KOHAUPT  Coordinator of the Melaleuca Centre:I guess, a lot of the time it's because they are the latest arrivals and Australia has a history of always bashing on the latest arrivals. For a while it was the Vietnamese, then the Lebanese and now it's the Africans. I also think, perhaps, because they stand out their very visible, because of their skin colour and just their different physical appearance.

EDWARD SOLO  Secretary of African Community Council:Most of the kids have been attacked by Indigenous kids, we don't know what reason is causing that, we have tried to investigate.

SARAH JAENSCH:Edward Solo is the secretary of Darwin's African Community Council. He says he's been talking to members of the African and Aboriginal communities to try to find a way to ease the tensions.

EDWARD SOLO:If we don't come together through that approach, I believe strongly it will stimulate the idea of the African children getting together as gangs which will result in uncontrollable violence.

SARAH JAENSCH:Edward Solo was one of many Karama residents who attended a community crime forum because they felt juvenile crime was getting out of control. Residents had the ears of Territory and Federal politicians as they complained of repeated break-ins, vandalism and youth gangs roaming the streets. Northern Territory Police say crimes against the African community have been reported but there's no indication that they're racially motivated. But Edward Solo says the attacks aren't random.

EDWARD SOLO:Most of the families here in Darwin now they have that fear, they feel that they're not safe, that their kids are not safe so it creates a situation where African families are more or less deciding whether to continue to live here in Darwin or go to some other place where they can live safely.

SARAH JAENSCH:ABC sports broadcaster Charlie King also works with Indigenous youth. He's been aware of the problem for some time.

CHARLIE KING  Child protection advocate:There's this patch protection if you like going on - Aboriginal kids saying, hang on this is where we are, don't come in here. So I'm hoping it doesn't get worse than it is, but I think we know from all around the world, these things start at this level and they do get worse and we have to do something about it.

SARAH JAENSCH:Every night, the African community practice their soccer skills at this oval in the northern suburbs. Charlie king says the Africans and Indigenous kids share a passion for sport and he wants to use sport to build bridges between the communities, and has been talking to AFL, cricket and soccer organisations.

CHARLIE KING:If this gets entrenched, these kids grow apart they then become gangs, it's very hard to get them back together again five years from now. Sport is a great way to do it, sport without boundaries, knock down the boundaries, let the kids play sport with and against each other.

SARAH JAENSCH:Every year the Territory celebrates multiculturalism as part of harmony day. The Melaleuca Refugee Centre has applied for a "living in harmony" grant for a program to teach the African and Indigenous communties more about each other.

LAVA KOHAUPT  Coordinator of the Melaleuca Centre:A few of months ago we actually had some Yolnu people coming from Yirkalla and just said we want to meet some real African refugees so we said okay. So they had a meeting here and it was really, really quite amazing because at the end of it one of the Yolnu people said the only difference between you and us is that you can't go back to your country.